Cynthia Jeffries Knox Shoreline WA As a teenage artist, Cynthia was driven to sculpt and do wheel-thrown work in clay, occasionally sharing her basement studio space and kiln with the small children in her rural Connecticut neighborhood. After high school she spent several years studying ceramics and design at The School for American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology. Then she ventured west to Colorado, working a day job as a professional chef, and using food as her artistic medium. After 6 years of kitchen work Cynthia moved to Seattle and enrolled in Cornish College of the Arts with the intent of developing her artistic voice. She attended Cornish for several years and began making work in a variety of media (video, painting, plaster, paper and wood sculpture) that spoke about body image for fat women. Cynthia later studied oil painting and printmaking at The Evergreen State College where she earned her Bachelor's Degree. Her work is an antithesis to the notion of body improvment, showing an alternate perspective of female sexuality and body image. The work plays with the taboo of showing fat naked women living in their own satisfied universe, blissfully unaware of cultural ideals about "proper" body types. Cynthia's intention is that the work examine the notions of sanctioned body expressions in the human species. Her charecters exhibit a multi-demensional nature while participating in earthly life. The work asks the question: Since humans are but tiny specks in a vast universe, why does taking up a few more cubic inches here and there matter? Animals in the work support the humans by mirroring unabashed action and reaction in their surrondings. After all does a raccoon worry that her hips are too large? Sanctuary 17.5 x 21.5 ($795) Oil bar on board Riding Towards Dessert 17.5 x 21.5 ($795) Oil bar on board
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